Czech Log August 5

August 5, 2010

So Pilate asks Jesus, “What is truth?” Now Pilate did not know that his question would one day describe the people of Prague. We spent some time speaking with Maggie tonight as she showed us the city at night. What a beautiful place, and what a dark place! It used to be that we only had to answer the question, “What is true?” We would present the facts and apologetics of the Bible, Jesus, and creation, etc. and win the argument. Not so fast in Prague. Before we can even get to the place of figuring out what is true, we need to back up a step and convince them that truth actually exists. We can really know that we do NOT live in a computer generated matrix. Truth must become a reality before any progress can be made.

So, if this is the case in Prague (and it is), how effective is it to blitz a city with a bunch of Bible tracts and eager college students? If Prague citizens do not even accept truth, tracts and American style evangelism falls woefully short. Slowly, the blindness needs to erode away. Because of all this, I’ve learned three things this week.

1. It takes relationships. Months and years need to be invested into people here. Trust must be developed. And, you have to be happy with low levels of fruit. Many Muslim countries have higher conversion rates than Prague along with flourishing (albeit underground) churches.

2. The people of Prague have nothing. While their economic status has improved since I drove through the country in 1990, there is not even an inkling of Jesus as children grow up. No Bible stories. No Sunday schools. No prayers around the dinner table. Again, if they’ve rejected even the notion of truth, they cannot easily reach the truth of the Gospel. So, that leaves them with a whole lot of vanity: sex, humanism, materialism, hedonism. Not much hope with these idols.

3. I need to be praying for the missionaries here. Steve, his family, and his journeymen (and women!) run into this concrete wall everyday. How would you hold up as the months go by? After a week, I’m tired. All I got for my efforts is one young man saying today, “I reject Christianity.” But, God knows the hearts. When we present the survey questions, most of the respondents have never thought through them before. In the quietness of their hearts, they wonder if there is something more.

Pastor Joe